Any employer will want to understand how you meet his or her needs before taking yours into consideration. When you keep this in mind, you will understand that the fastest way to find a job is to find the employer who thinks you represent the answer to his or her problem. To paraphrase President Kennedy’s famous inaugural dictum: Ask not what an employer can do for you … ask what you can do for an employer.

When you winnow down all the possible jobs that you might apply for into the jobs for which you’re most suited for to attain success, you will have the time and energy necessary to make each application, interaction and interview count. Rather than taking an unfocused shotgun approach, you will be able to psych out what employers are looking for … and give it to them with a customized cover letter, resume and phone-screening interview all leading up to the main event: the in-person job interview.

Read the rest on http://money.usnews.com!

(via nytimes.com) – How do you respond to colleagues who complain about your helpfulness or criticize you for being helpful?

You might approach a colleague and say: “When I did X, I was trying to be helpful. Can you help me understand why you interpreted it differently?” From there, the goal is to make sure that you’re using the same data, and exchange advice on how to approach these situations differently in the future. For more details, read about the ladder of inference and check out “The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook,” by Senge and colleagues.

Any advice on dealing w an extremely loud phone talker in an open office?

Read the rest here!

The premise of a new book by Chicago career coach and management training consultant Roger Wright: there is plenty of work out there, but not necessarily a lot of jobs with benefits and a steady paycheck. The book, released in Feb., is called Finding Work When There are No Jobs. Wright, 58, believes that job seekers should try to match their personal story with the needs of communities and employers. Do that and you stand the best chance of finding work, and possibly a permanent job.

Wright’s own struggles motivated him to lay out what he claims is a new way to look for work. His career, in brief: teaching special ed in Chicago high schools, then doing in-house corporate management training at companies like Walgreen’s, MCI and Gallup. After losing his job in 2008, he started a search using the standard techniques, including polishing his résumé, networking and doing interviews on the phone and in person.

Read the rest on forbes.com!

So you’ve cleaned your closet, maybe your inbox, and you’re feeling pretty good about your spring cleaning. But before you wash your hands and congratulate yourself — pull out your resume, and take a look at it (whether or not you’re looking for a job right now).

You see, your resume is a lot like a closet. At least once a year, it needs a good cleaning. That includes taking a look at what you’ve got and determining what to keep, what to get rid of, and what to emphasize. Then, after all the unwanted items are cleaned out, you can add in new information to create a resume that’s current, relevant, and appealing. Just like your closet, if you don’t clean and update it regularly, it’s only going to be worse later.

And just like the rest of your spring cleaning, taking the project step-by-step makes it so much easier. Follow these three simple guidelines, and you’ll have a resume that’s refreshed and ready to go for spring.

Read the rest on mashable.com!

Although it would be ideal to have a job before you relocate to a new location, sometimes time isn’t on your side. Whether you’re relocating with your significant other, looking to start fresh, or moving for different reasons, you need a job stat. Whatever your situation might be, here are some tips on how to find an out-of-state job:

Network Early

Not knowing anyone in your field in your new location can be pretty scary. Who do you talk to and how do you start?

Fortunately, we live in a digital world where we can virtually contact almost anyone, any time. If you have questions about a certain position in your soon-to-be new location, dig around the company’s website. See if you can talk to the HR person and start building relationships by sending out an e-mail, scheduling a phone call or even a Skype session. According to this article, “finding an insider at a company to help open doors for you is always useful in a job search.” Using your professional social networks like LinkedIn is a good way to start.

Remember, the more connections you build with employers, the better chances you’ll have at landing your own job in a place you barely know.

Read the rest on careerealism.com!

It is a long-held belief that the dumb jocks and the smart nerds must occupy separate spheres, or the delicate balance of the universe will be thrown off. However, if employees want to reach their full potential, the smart nerds have something to learn from the dumb jocks. Study after study suggests that athletes make excellent employees and even better leaders. In fact, athletes who have the brains and the brawn may have an edge over non-athletes from the moment they submit their resume.

Susie Hall, president of Vitamin T talent agency, states that: “Many hiring managers proactively search for and prioritize candidates who have played college sports, particularly as part of a team sport.” She explains that former athletes understand how to function as part of a team and tend to have a competitive drive.

Read the rest on huffingtonpost.com!

Check out this helpful list of common LinkedIn mistakes! Via businessinsider.com.

(via nextavenue.org)

Employment sites can be a terrible waste of time for job seekers — unless you know how to get the most out of them. Things are looking up for anyone searching for work: Job growth hasn’t been this strong since 2006 and economists expect the unemployment rate to drop in 2013, The Wall Street Journal reports. But if you’re hunting for a job, odds are you’re making one giant mistake: Relying too much on online job boards to find and apply for openings.

A striking 87 percent of boomers choose job boards as their first resource, according to a recent study by Millennial Branding, a Gen Y consulting firm, and Beyond.com, a career resources site. From my experience coaching job seekers over 50, I’ve found that many of them use job boards exclusively when foraging for a new position. Not smart.

Read the rest here!

I’ve noticed recently that the Millennial generation’s trend of phone avoidance is quickly spreading to people of all ages. It started with smartphones. Texting replaced leaving voicemails and whole conversations now take place with our thumbs. Calling someone has now become low on the communication priority list and even frequently disparaged.

Certainly written communication has its advantages.

• You can get your message out whether or not the other person is available.

• You can respond without concern for time zones or sleep patterns.

• You don’t have to waste time with unwanted chatty gossip.

But the phone has benefits that text and e-mail will never overcome. It’s still an important tool for business etiquette and should be considered equally in today’s communication environment. Here are 10 scenarios where a phone call does the job best.

Check out the rest on inc.com!

When I speak to audiences of marketers and brand managers someone inevitably raises their hand and says to me, “You’re a Millennial… How do I market to your generation?” I think the answer to this question seems very simple: You have to place Millennials within positions of power in your company. Every major company needs to understand the Millennials — the biggest and most dynamic generation in American history — and will need to work hard to gain Millennials’ trust and loyalty. In order to get your consumer base to find your brand appealing, you have to exude the spirit of your consumer. It’s almost impossible to exude that spirit without placing the actual target consumer at the heart of what you do. At General Motors, Millennials account for less than 15 percent of the company’s employees. At Viacom, Millennials make up over half of the company. So it shouldn’t be surprising that very few Millennials are buying cars and lots of Millennials are watching Viacom content. In fact, General Motors hired a unit of Viacom to help them figure out how to attract more Millennial consumers and employees.

Read the rest on huffingtonpost.com!

THINK for a moment about your typical workday. Do you wake up tired? Check your e-mail before you get out of bed? Skip breakfast or grab something on the run that’s not particularly nutritious? Rarely get away from your desk for lunch? Run from meeting to meeting with no time in between? Find it nearly impossible to keep up with the volume of e-mail you receive? Leave work later than you’d like, and still feel compelled to check e-mail in the evenings?

More and more of us find ourselves unable to juggle overwhelming demands and maintain a seemingly unsustainable pace. Paradoxically, the best way to get more done may be to spend more time doing less. A new and growing body of multidisciplinary research shows that strategic renewal — including daytime workouts, short afternoon naps, longer sleep hours, more time away from the office and longer, more frequent vacations — boosts productivity, job performance and, of course, health.

Read the rest on nytimes.com!

What are the ingredients for a successful career? Most people would say something like hard work, personal sacrifices, determination, and a dose of luck. But even after giving your all for the benefit of your career, can you still say it was all worth it? Though many people are content once they reach the pinnacle of their professions, many others answer this question with a resounding “no.” These people find that the careers they have been shedding blood, sweat, and tears for are, in the end, not making them happy.

It is these very people who often feel trapped by their jobs rather than set free. They feel bound to their jobs thanks to the paycheck which works to fund the “successful” live they’ve cultivated over many years. So they suffer silently and resentfully as they burn-out, remain constantly irritable, and lose patience with those around them. Often, people in this situation consider quitting their job as the best solution to their unhappiness, but that may not be true, and not just for financial reasons.

Read the full article on recruiter.com!

Marissa Mayer left Google to tackle what ailed Yahoo. And this week she took on … telecommuting.

Yahoos were pleased with the new iPhones and free food from the new boss – a Google-icious touch. But, depending on the speaker, this “bold,” “outrageous,” or “1950s” decree eliminating work from home has stirred up comment, incredulity and outrage from coast to coast.

Beneath the visceral reactions, I see three important issues:

• Telecommuting is progressing from a questionable practice toward an unquestioned entitlement.
• Its supply or denial seems increasingly based on personal need rather than business imperative.
• Many successful organizations reject telecommuting as a productivity tool – and Ms. Mayer thrived in one at Google.

Read the rest on tlnt.com!

Searching for jobs is a daunting task for many, so it’s imperative your resume is in tip-top shape.

With 25% of human-resources managers receiving 50 resumes per job listing, competition is fierce, according to an infographic developed by NowSourcing, an Internet-marketing services firm.

Called “The Anatomy of a Great Resume,” it dissects the components of a first-class CV. The infographic encourages job-seekers to concisely summarize work experience, emphasize accomplishments and include key words such as “problem solving,” “leadership” and team building.” On the other hand, the infographic counsels against making spelling and grammatical errors.

Indeed, it says 77% of HR managers search for candidates with relevant experience, while 48% want information on specific accomplishments, and 41% look to see whether a resume is customized to an available position.

See the rest on http://mashable.com!

Over the holidays, I looked around the living room and saw eight adults over 55 sending text messages, having video conversations with loved ones in other cities, and showing each other the new apps they use.

In our living rooms, at the office, in our classrooms, in our cars, and in our pockets, innovation in software has radically changed the world we know. With this has come a shift in what society celebrates and what we value in the technology world. “Geek” is definitely the new cool.

Do you know what is cool?

Consider that across the world, founders like Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Kevin Systrom grace magazine covers and television programs as we celebrate their meteoric wealth creation and unique command of the PR machine.

At the employee level, a growing percentage of Silicon Valley engineers are exploiting a red-hot labor market by jumping startup to startup or cashing in on comfortable jobs in large companies that are overpaying to retain workers. Far too many of them are happy to be peddled by recruiters who exacerbate their god-state with terms like “rock stars”, “unicorns,” and “ninjas”. Just as astounding, some are even willing to be auctioned off.

It might be tempting to listen to those who insist that resumes are dead. But here’s the thing—they’re not. Rather, expectations for them have changed. Instead of burying your resume, you need to revive it.

Resumes are not dead. Not even close. And any job seeker who treats them as such is making a big mistake.

Looking through our stats at ZipRecruiter, I can tell you that recruiters and employers are viewing hundreds of thousands of resumes per month. That’s on our site alone. Some of the resume views come via submitted applications, while others are from recruiters actively seeking out candidates in our resume database.

Read the rest on recruiter.com!

(via inc.com) My company, Metal Mafia, has an excellent candidate screening process, a super training program, and a very successful team of employees to show for it.

But hiring has always been a difficult task for me because each time I get ready to hire, it takes me forever to find the right type of candidates to even get the screening process started.

Despite the fact that I carefully consider where to advertise for candidates–I try to maximize the search dollars and get a good mix of potential applicants–it always takes me a long time to find people suited well to the company, and therefore, even worth interviewing.

I’ve tried everything from placing ads on large job boards like Monster.com, to smaller specialized job boards that cater to sales hires or fashion jobs, to local university boards where I can post for free (or close to it). Each time, I experience the same slow crawl toward finally finding the right person. It has taken me up to five months to find the right kind of hire in the past. So in November when I decided I needed to think about hiring for the new year, I was not optimistic.

Read the rest here!